Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Timing is Everything!

Yesterday morning my husband and I had a final discussion about whether or not we would do a final sign off of our new one year lease and get it handed in. We decided neither of us had the motivation, sense of impending change, time free to seek new accommodation, or even the 'oomph" mentally or physically to face packing up again. So, mid morning I took the lease and a cheque for next month's rent to the office and turned them in. We had decided to just trust God that we would be able to handle whatever new neighbours arrived on the other side of the wall, whenever they arrived.

Two hours later we had the new neighbour and so far as we can tell there are no big red flags that we made a mistake in signing on for another year. Good confirmation for us that we made the correct decision.

Four hours after that our phone rang. One of our parishioners was calling to see if we would be interested in moving into a house his daughter from another city owns. She rents the house out and very unexpectedly has lost her tenants as of the end of March. The house is not that far from where we live now. It would be possible to move without losing too much location convenience. When I told the man we had just that morning signed a new lease, he groaned and said he should have called us the night before when his daughter first told him she needed new renters. The rental market here is in a bad slump and she may have trouble renting the space.

I admit to being relieved the man did not call the previous evening. That call would have thrown us into an emotional turmoil. My husband in particular would have wanted to see the house, weigh every little pro and con, meditate and pray for a week, (none of these being out of line for any responsible person to do of course), while I, who make decisions nearly instantaneously about such major issues and only drive myself crazy over niggling little problems like what choir to be in, would have had myself tied up in knots waiting for my husband to make up his mind. Then once a decision had been made, the second guessing of it would begin.

Due to the timing of everything, any further considerations about moving had been taken care of just hours before the new tenants arrived next door and new offers of accommodation came along.

For me it is a big relief. With Lent and Easter upon us we have no time to be preparing for yet another move....never a good time for a priest to have to take on other life stresses. Whew, double whew and "thank you Jesus" is all I can say about the situation.